Desire to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in various industrial processes requires viable carbon dioxide mitigation strategies. Capture of the carbon dioxide depends on ability to separate the carbon dioxide from a mixture. Separation of the carbon dioxide from the mixture enables transport of the carbon dioxide and subsequent handling or sequestering of the carbon dioxide.
Factors determining suitability of possible techniques to separate the carbon dioxide include costs and energy requirements of the techniques. Energy intense separation approaches such as distillation are limited by thermodynamic constraints. Absorption processes utilize a sorbent to remove the carbon dioxide from the mixture followed by regeneration of the sorbent to liberate the carbon dioxide.
Prior absorption units utilize columns or towers for direct contacting of the mixture with an absorbent fluid such as an aqueous amine. However, percentage of the carbon dioxide within the mixture and/or amount of the carbon dioxide removed dictate size, operating expense and capital expense of the units. Viability of these absorption units that may contain inefficient mass transfer devices such as trays begins to diminish as the amount of the carbon dioxide to be separated scales up.
Therefore, a need exists for systems and methods of using hollow-fiber contactors as efficient mass transfer devices in absorption systems for carbon dioxide separation.